1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to providing surveillance capabilities, or call-tapping, within a switched network environment without using a centralized server to provide the connections in each of the switches necessary to accomplish the tapping function. Each switch in the switched network has within it capability to configure itself so as to provide a call-tapping path.
2. Description of Related Art
In a network where data is transmitted from one node, e.g., a user workstations, to another node, it is sometimes necessary to "tap" into a connection between any two given nodes. This may be for security reasons, a "wire-tap", or for system maintenance, where debugging of a network problem requires monitoring data being sent between the two nodes.
In pending U.S. Ser. No. 08/370,158 U.S. Pat. No. 5,754,532, entitled "Use of Multipoint Connection Services to Establish Call-Tapping Points in a Switched Network," by Dev et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, there is described a method to establish a call-tap in a switched network, which, in one embodiment, utilizes point-to-multipoint connections. This method is embodied in the Spectrums.RTM. product now available from Cabletron Systems, Inc., Rochester, N.H. In this system, in one embodiment, a tapping node is identified by the user and a centralized connection service, which has a global view of the network topology, identifies those switches in the network which are necessary to accomplish the call-tapping and the centralized server then configures these switches by making appropriate entries in the switches' internal connection tables. The centralized system stores a representation of the topology of the switched network and by the application of various algorithms, determines a path to the tapping point from either (or both) the source or destination.